Page 177 of The Robin on the Oak Throne

He shrugged. “So?”

“So?” she asked in disbelief. “That’s all you have to say?”

“We don’t have to go through with it anytime soon,” Lorcan said, taking a step down toward her. “It doesn’t change what’s in here.”

He reached out to touch her chest, and she took a step back.

“Anytime soon…isn’t never.”

“No, it’s not.”

“So, when were you going to tell me?”

“When I thought you might agree to it,” he said simply.

“What if I never agree to it?”

He smiled then. That blinding, happy smile that said he’d never suffered, even though she now knew that he had. “She said the same thing, once.”

Kierse faltered. “Who?”

“Saoirse.”

“Your wife.”

“Saoirse hated me when we first met. It’s almost funny to think about, considering we were married for nearly four hundred years.” His eyes went distant. “But the first time magic flared between us, she told me she’d rather die than be bound to anyone.”

“Wait…” Kierse said as confusion bloomed in her stomach.

“Oh, yes, we were soulmates.” This time when he reached for the place they were connected, she let him touch her. “And you have her magic.”

“I have…Saoirse’s magic?” Her voice cracked as she asked desperately, “How?”

“I don’t know. I knew it the second that I saw you without the spell. This magic between us had already been connected once before, and it was calling back to me.”

“That’s impossible.”

“I thought so as well. I’ve spent the last six months scrounging through everything we had on reincarnation.”

Her eyes widened in alarm. “I am not…reincarnated.”

“You may notbeher, but you have her magic. That’s why the bond is so strong. Saoirse needed time to process and come around to the idea.” He spread his arms wide. “All I have is time, Kierse. I’m happy to give you as much as you need to do the same.”

She tried to wade through this new information. Graves had said Lorcan would twist his explanation to make himself the good guy. But fuck, no one could have prepared her for this. She had the magical signature of hisdead wife.

And not just that, they had been bound in the pastanda triskel. No wonder things were so intense between them. No wonder she could barely escape him every time.

“You don’t have to make any decisions today,” Lorcan promised her. “The Oak Throne will wait.”

He held his hand out for her, his face contemplative and open. Damn him.

“You’re not playing fair.”

“I never said I would,” he said with a smirk.

She put her hand in his. “I’m just here for training.”

“As you say.”

---